A THUNDERING SUCCESS WITH AN INTERNATIONAL REACH FOR FANTASIA’S 15th EDITION

Montreal, Sunday, August 7, 2011 – The 15th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival has drawn to a close and our team is delighted by the great success of this year’s edition. As a stand-out event on the genre festival circuit since 1996, Fantasia is pleased to see its fan base continue to grow ever-more enthusiastic and keen to discover extraordinary films. The final audience numbers are yet to be confirmed, but we can already announce that Fantasia has welcomed more than 100,000 audience members! We would like to extend warm thanks to the 150 international directors, actors and producers who came to present their films at the fest and to the 50 industry members who contributed to this year’s edition. Fantasia’s overwhelming success is due in large part to the valuable contribution and hard work of more than 160 media representatives in attendance, with at least 40 of them hailing from countries as diverse as the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Morocco, and Denmark.

The festival opened with a bang with the Canadian premiere of RED STATE by director Kevin Smith. This was only the first in a long line of sensational special events that took place over the course of the festival. Among those was the incredible homage to the great John Landis (BURKE AND HARE), marked by the presentation of Fantasia’s new trophy “Le Cheval Noir.” Mirroring our strong launch, the festival closed with the Canadian premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK. Other memorable events included: the homage to André Link and John Dunning with a retrospective at the Cinémathèque québécoise; a master class with award-winning South Korean filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan (THE UNJUST, CRYING FIST); a spotlight on the films of Adam Wingard that included the world premiere of his latest work, WHAT FUN WE WERE HAVING: 4 STORIES ABOUT DATE RAPE; a special live conversation between Robin Hardy (THE WICKER MAN) and Richard Stanley (HARDWARE); THE FP after-party, with a Dance Dance Revolution challenge issued by Brandon and Jason Trost; the official program launch and outdoor projections hosted in collaboration with la Société des arts technologiques (SAT); and the breathtaking presentation of Gabriel Thibaudeau’s live score by a 30 person orchestra of the 1925 silent masterpiece, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at Place des Arts.

The 15th anniversary programming was our broadest and most exciting yet. More than 85% of our feature length films were premieres (114 out of a total of 134). Among this impressive selection from more than 25 different countries were 19 world premieres, including Chris Sivertson’s BRAWLER, Carl Tibbetts’ RETREAT, Robin Hardy’s THE WICKER TREE, the hotly anticipated 7-filmmaker/4-country omnibus film THE THEATRE BIZARRE, Steven Quale’s FINAL DESTINATION 5, Filip Tegstedt’s MARIANNE, Yudai Yamaguchi’s DEADBALL and Jesse T. Cook’s MONSTER BRAWL. Also memorable were William Eubank’s LOVE, and Noboru Iguchi’s TOMIE UNLIMITED, which were only 2 of 6 international premieres. Also worth noting were the 14 North American premieres, including Johnny To’s DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART; Herman Yau’s IP MAN: THE LEGEND IS BORN; Andy Fetscher’s URBAN EXPLORER; Paul Campion’s THE DEVIL’S ROCK; and F.J. Ossang’s DHARMA GUNS. Fantasia fans were also treated to Xavier Gens’ THE DIVIDE, Mike Cahill’s ANOTHER EARTH and Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales’ RABIES: 2 films out of 48 which had Canadian premieres at the festival. Joe Cornish’s ATTACK THE BLOCK, Evan Kelly’s THE CORRIDOR and Jan Švankmajer’s SURVIVING LIFE (THEORY AND PRACTICE) were 3 exciting films among 27 to have their Quebec premieres at Fantasia.

The festive atmosphere of Fantasia’s 15th edition will live on for several directors whose films were picked up at the festival. Jason and Brandon Trost are celebrating their new deal with Drafthouse Films (an affiliate of the Alamo Drafthouse chain of cinemas) for the distribution of THE FP. Pat Tremblay, the Montreal filmmaker of HELLACIOUS ACRES: THE CASE OF JOHN GLASS, is also celebrating his new contract for a theatrical, DVD and VOD release in the United States with The Collective and Bloody Disgusting Selects. Several other titles launched at the festival are currently in negotiations for acquisition.

The juries have finished deliberating on this year’s competitions and are pleased to announce the following winners:

Cheval Noir Award for Best Film: CLOWN by Mikkel Nørgaard
“This charmingly subversive take on fatherhood features excellent ensemble acting with deft and seamless direction. So wrong and shameless in so many ways that it was a real blast to watch.”

New Flesh Award for Best First Feature: BULLHEAD by Michaël R. Roskam
“A compelling, dark story of personal tragedy with one of the best performances of the year by Matthias Schoenaerts. This is a film that has balls!”

Special Mention to LOVE, “for the resourcefulness and unwavering determination by a Director to realize his unique vision”.

AQCC Prize: (TIE) SUPER and SUPERHEROES
“For two films that perfectly capture the Zeitgeist of our age and that present elaborate reflections on one of the biggest Americans trends, the AQCC Jury has awarded its best international film prize, in a tie, to the fiction film SUPER by James Gunn and to the documentary SUPERHEROES by Michael Burnett, two strong and complementary works.”

Séquences Prize: HEAVEN’S STORY
“For the density of the universal themes it explores, for its singular approach to the motif of vengeance and for its structured mise-en-scène and its carefully captured images, the Séquence Prize for Best Asian Film goes to Takahisa Zeze’s flowing film, HEAVEN’S STORY.